Where to stay in Zanzibar: choosing a coast by tides, drive times and access
The decision most people get wrong is not which hotel. It is which coast.
Booking sites show you a room, a pool and a stretch of blue water. They do not show you that the blue water leaves for six hours a day, that the airport is a hundred minutes away, or that the last kilometre of your transfer is a sand track that a normal car cannot manage in April.
Those three facts decide whether you have the holiday you booked. Here is how they break down by area.
The three questions that actually decide it
Do you need to swim whenever you feel like it? On the southeast coast the sea retreats several hundred metres twice a day. On the north coast it barely moves. This is the single biggest differentiator between areas, and it is the one least often mentioned.
How much driving are you willing to do? Nothing on this island is truly far, but a 90 minute transfer at each end of a five night trip is a real chunk of your holiday, and the roads do not allow you to hurry.
Do you mind an unsurfaced access road? Most beach properties sit at the end of a sand or coral track. In the dry season this is a non-issue. During the long rains it decides whether you need four wheel drive.
Background on the first: Zanzibar tides. On the third: driving in the rainy season.
Coast by coast
Drive times are from the airport in dry conditions, which is what matters when you land. Treat them as planning figures.
Nungwi, the northern tip
[VERIFY LOCALLY] Every drive time in this section is an estimate. These are the numbers readers will judge your local knowledge by, so have someone who drives these routes check them before publishing.
Drive from airport: around 1 hour 45. Tide: minimal effect. Swimmable at most states of tide. Access: mostly surfaced or firm.
The busiest beach area on the island, and the most developed. Bars, restaurants, dive centres, boat trips, a turtle sanctuary and the traditional dhow builders.
Suits people who want things to do in the evening and do not want to drive to find dinner. Less suited to anyone looking for quiet.
Kendwa, just south of Nungwi
Drive from airport: around 1 hour 45. Tide: the least affected beach on Zanzibar. Access: generally good.
If uninterrupted swimming is your priority, this is the answer. Wide sand, deep water at nearly any hour, sunsets over the sea.
Quieter than Nungwi but with enough within walking distance to eat well. Known for its full moon parties, which is either a feature or a warning depending on you.
Matemwe, northeast
Drive from airport: around 1 hour 30. Tide: noticeable but less extreme than the southeast. Access: frequently unsurfaced for the final stretch.
The launch point for the Mnemba reef, which is the best accessible snorkelling on the island. Quieter and more spread out than the north, with fewer places to walk to.
Suits divers and snorkellers, and anyone happy to eat where they sleep.
Kiwengwa and Pwani Mchangani, northeast
Drive from airport: around 1 hour 15. Tide: moderate. Access: mixed, with unsurfaced final approaches common.
The large resort belt. Plenty of all-inclusive properties, long beaches, and comparatively little going on outside the hotels.
Suits people who want a resort holiday and do not intend to leave it much.
Paje, southeast
Drive from airport: around 1 hour. Tide: dramatic. Sea out several hundred metres at low water. Access: village is surfaced, individual properties often not.
The kitesurfing capital and the liveliest part of the southeast, with a young crowd, good cheap food and a proper village around it.
The shallow lagoon that makes it frustrating for swimmers is exactly what makes it excellent for learning to kite. Choose it for that, or for the landscape and the price, but not for swimming on demand.
Jambiani, southeast
Drive from airport: around 1 hour 10. Tide: dramatic. Access: often unsurfaced.
Quieter and more residential than Paje, strung out along several kilometres of coast. Seaweed farming is a visible part of daily life here.
Suits people who want the southeast landscape without the kite crowd, and who are content to drive or walk for variety.
Bwejuu, southeast
Drive from airport: around 1 hour 5. Tide: dramatic. Access: mixed.
The quietest of the three southeast villages. Very little happens, which for some people is the entire point.
Michamvi peninsula
Drive from airport: around 1 hour 30. Tide: varies along the peninsula. Access: narrower roads, variable surfaces.
The one place on this side of the island where you get a west-facing shore and therefore sunsets over water, at Michamvi Kae.
Spread out and quiet, and effectively requires a vehicle. Suits people who have a car and want somewhere most visitors never reach.
Stone Town
Drive from airport: 20 to 30 minutes. Tide: not a swimming coast. Access: you park at the edge and walk in.
Not a beach base, and nobody should spend a whole week here. But one or two nights at the start or end of a trip is close to essential, and it is the only part of the island that could not be anywhere else in the world.
Full detail: Stone Town Zanzibar
Kizimkazi, south
Drive from airport: around 1 hour 15. Tide: moderate. Access: deteriorating surfaces on the final approach.
Quiet, low-key, known for dolphin trips and for one of the oldest mosques in East Africa. Few places to eat outside the hotels.
Fumba, southwest
Drive from airport: around 40 minutes. Tide: moderate. Access: generally good.
The closest beach area to the airport, and the departure point for Safari Blue dhow trips. Underrated for short trips precisely because the transfer is so short.
Splitting your stay
For anything longer than five nights, two bases beat one.
The standard combination is one or two nights in Stone Town and the rest on a beach. It gets the culture and history out of the way while you are still adjusting, and it means your beach days are uninterrupted.
The more interesting version, if you have a car, is a north coast base and a southeast base. You get guaranteed swimming for half the trip and the landscape, quiet and lower prices for the other half. The drive between them is around two hours.
Which coast suits your dates? Tell us your travel dates and the property you are considering and we will tell you honestly what the access road is like and whether the tide will be where you want it. Sometimes the answer is that a different coast would suit you better, and we will say so.
What changes in the rainy season
During the long rains from March to May, the access road question stops being theoretical.
If you are booking a property reached by a sand track in April, either take four wheel drive or choose somewhere with a surfaced approach. Ask the property directly what their access is like, and treat a vague answer as an answer. What that means in practice is clearance and all-wheel drive in something narrow enough for the lanes, which is why we run the RAV4 rather than a Land Cruiser.
Some smaller hotels close entirely during April and May for renovation, so confirm your accommodation is open before you build a trip around it.
Three mistakes worth avoiding
Booking the southeast for a short trip with swimming as the priority. The landscape is remarkable and the swimming is tidal. On four nights, that is a gamble you do not need to take.
Underestimating transfers. Airport to Nungwi and back is close to four hours of your holiday. On a five night trip that matters. On a two week trip it does not.
Assuming all beaches on one coast behave the same. They do not. Kendwa and Nungwi are twenty minutes apart and noticeably different, and the southeast villages vary along their length.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the best place to stay in Zanzibar for swimming? Kendwa on the north coast, with Nungwi close behind. Both are far less affected by the tide than the southeast beaches, where the sea retreats several hundred metres twice a day.
Should I stay in Nungwi or Paje? Nungwi for swimming, nightlife and things within walking distance. Paje for kitesurfing, a younger crowd, lower prices and a more dramatic landscape. They are very different holidays.
How far is Nungwi from Zanzibar airport? Around an hour and three quarters in dry conditions. Allow more during the rains or if you land in the evening.
Do I need to stay in Stone Town? Not for a whole trip, but one or two nights is worth it. It is close to the airport and works well at either end of a stay.
Which coast is best in the rainy season? Anywhere with a surfaced access road, or anywhere you are reaching with four wheel drive. The rain matters less than the last kilometre.
Whichever coast you choose, the drive is the same problem.
We deliver to the airport or your hotel, handle the driving permit with your booking, and will tell you before you book whether your property's access road needs four wheel drive for your dates.
Drive times are estimates in dry conditions. Road surfaces and access arrangements change. If something here no longer matches what you found, tell us.